wfn.org | Newsline: Summer workcamp program involves nearly 700 people

["COBNews Newsline" <cobnews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service -- Sept. 29, 2008
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, News Director
800-323-8039 ext. 260 -- cobnews@brethren.org

>SUMMER WORKCAMP PROGRAM INVOLVES NEARLY 700

>PEOPLE

(Sept. 29, 2008) Elgin, IL -- Nearly 700 junior- and senior-high youth
and adult advisors were part of the 2008 Church of the Brethren
workcamps this summer. Participants worshiped, served, and
experienced new cultures as part of the workcamp experience.

In all, 28 workcamps were offered by the Church of the Brethren's
Youth and Young Adult Ministries, in 12 states and four countries.
Participants traveled as far west as Idaho and as far south as Mexico and
the Caribbean. The theme for the summer's workcamps was
"...Strengthen My Hands," based on Nehemiah 6:9.

A wide variety of experiences were available to workcamp participants.
Youth in the Pine Ridge workcamp learned about Native American
culture through participating in an "inipi" or sweat-lodge, a beading
lesson, and a trip to the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre. Work
projects included home repairs around the reservation, as well as
improvements to a school.

Workcampers explored urban issues of poverty and homelessness in
Roanoke, Va., and Ashland, Ohio, as well as Baltimore, Indianapolis,
and Chicago. Workcamps in Neon, Ken., and Keyser, W.Va., provided a
perspective on rural life. Those who went to St. Croix in the US Virgin
Islands, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Reynosa, Mexico,
received a chance for cross-cultural interactions.

Dates and locations for the 2009 workcamps will be available this fall,
go to www.brethren.org/genbd/yya/workcamps for more information.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to
continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its
faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and
Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches.  It
celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts more than 125,000
members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and
sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and
India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org

**********************************************************
To receive Church of the Brethren news via an e-mail list serv, go to
http://listserver.emountain.net/mailman/listinfo/newsline